Introduction
Dungeons and Dragons, or D&D as its colloquially called, has very intense stereotypes around the people who play it: they’re usually socially awkward, typically insular, and always really weird white dudes. This crown jewel of tabletop RPG’s has mostly been a white men’s club for a very long time, which has strongly deterred people from other demographics from getting involved. Visual depictions of D&D in pop culture have only helped to reinforce this stereotype. Many nerdy TV shows depict D&D games, but often the characters are all male and mostly white. For example, some high-profile depictions of D&D have been in the wildly popular Netflix series Stranger Things, the hit comedy The Big Bang Theory, and the blockbuster movie ET: The Extra-Terrestrial. In all these cases the games depicted follow the same rules: all the characters are male, all of them are misfits, and all, or all but one, are white. This paints a monolithic stereotype of people who are accepted in D&D spaces and creates friction with people who don’t fit that stereotype when they want to join the table.
Screencap of the Dungeons and Dragons table in the movie E.T. The Extraterrestrial.
Scene depicting three quarters of the Dungeons and Dragons party in Stranger Things, not pictured is the character Mike who is also a white teenage boy.
Scene where the characters of Big Bang Theory play Dungeons and Dragons.
In recent years, that dynamic has been changed drastically. Through a combination of actual rule, mechanics, and lore revisions along with high-profile games opening D&D to new audiences, the demographic landscape of D&D has shifted dramatically. Now more than ever, a variety of people are coming to the table to take part in the epic storytelling and adventuring of D&D. The game is seen not solely as a bastion of old-fashioned Tolkien-esque high fantasy, but now as a sandbox world to address current social issues, explore important questions, and create heroes that represent underserved groups in mainstream media.
This drastic change in culture didn’t happen overnight. In fact, it started back in 2008 with the release of one of the most controversial game overhauls in the RPG scene: Dungeons and Dragons 4th edition.